Allocation of Harvest Opportunity for Trawl and Other Sectors of the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery

Amendment 21 concerns formal, long term allocations of a select subset of federally-managed west coast groundfish species to the limited entry trawl sectors. The long term allocations of Amendment 21 reduces the need for trawl/nontrawl allocation action in each biennial specifications process. Trawl/nontrawl allocations are needed to support the Amendment 20 trawl rationalization program and establish for the trawl sector the sector responsibility for bycatch that was called for under Amendment 18. Amendment 20 rationalized the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery by managing the shoreside sectors (i.e., sectors of the limited entry trawl fleet that deliver groundfish to shoreside processing plants) under a system of individual fishing quotas (IFQs) and the at-sea whiting sectors under a system of closed harvesting cooperatives.

Amendment 21 Partially Approved August 9, 2010

Concurrently with Amendment 20, Amendment 21 was partially approved by NMFS as described in a letter dated August 9, 2010. NMFS disapproved the portion of Amendment 21 asserting that it overrides the current allocation scheme between the groundfish limited entry and open access sectors. The Council is engaged in a trailing action to address this disapproved portion of the amendment.

FEIS Downloads

On June 25, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency published a Notice of Availability for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Allocation of Harvest Opportunity between Sectors of the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery. You may download an electronic copy of the FEIS below:

Amendment 21 FMP Language

Intersector Allocation – 5-year Review

At its June 2017 meeting, the Council completed a review of the intersector allocations formally incorporated into the FMP. The review of the intersector allocations was conducted in tandem with the review of the catch share program (see the “Five Year Review” webpage).